


So... Magic is A Thing?

by AtowncalledMalec



Series: Tentacletober [7]
Category: Shadowhunters (TV), The Shadowhunter Chronicles - All Media Types, malec - Fandom
Genre: AU, Communication, Explanations, First time meeting the tentacles, M/M, Multi, Mundane Alec Lightwood, Tentacles, Vulnerable Magnus Bane, Warlock Magnus Bane
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-07
Updated: 2019-10-07
Packaged: 2020-11-27 04:06:35
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,794
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20942000
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AtowncalledMalec/pseuds/AtowncalledMalec
Summary: This wasn't how Magnus had planned on Alec finding out about his... extra body parts.This work is not to be posted anywhere else or translated without my permission.





	So... Magic is A Thing?

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt: #7 "How Many of Those Are There?"

If there was one thing that could wake Alec Lightwood up, it was the sound of the shower running. Whilst he could usually sleep through a war, the sound of his roommate/brother using all of the hot water was enough to drag him from the land of nod, armed and ready to take Jace down.

The ancient water tank in their two-bed apartment took hours to fill and only ever heated enough water for one shower. The loser who got there last had to either shower in the arctic-like water that was left or walk around smelling like a foot all day.

So Alec woke, ready to roundhouse Jace. Only to find the other side of his bed empty. Then he realized who was using all of their hot water. His new boyfriend, Magnus. There was no way Jace would be up at this time of day, it was 5.30 AM.

Waking up at this ungodly hour would be a deal-breaker; if Magnus wasn’t so damned hot. They had been dating for three weeks and he was halfway in love with the guy already. Witty, charming, beautiful, and a demon in the sack, Magnus pretty much checked every one of Alec’s boxes. 

Speaking of a demon in the sack, Alec was so coated in last night that he could probably scrape the grime off with his fingernails-if he was disgusting enough to try. It had been their first night together. When Magnus had insisted they clean up in the morning, he’d wrapped himself around his boyfriend and fallen asleep.

But it seemed that Magnus had no objections to showering now. A slow grin crept over Alec’s face. If there was only enough water for one shower, he would just have to share with Magnus.

Grabbing a towel from the chair in the corner of his room and wrapping it around his lower half, Alec dashed across the hallway to the bathroom. The crack underneath Jace’s door was pitch black. Looked like Jace would be the smelly one today. 

Alec snuck into the bathroom, dropping his towel when he was engulfed by the clouds of steam. There was still some hot water left! Flinging the shower door open, he fully intended to step into the shower behind his boyfriend.

Alec got one foot on the slippery shower floor before his eye registered the sight before him. Magnus, with his back turned, and about a hundred arms sticking out of his back.  _ What the fuck?  _ Was his last thought before he went down, slipping on the floor and cracking his head on the floor tiles for his troubles.

**

Magnus paced Alec’s bedroom, eyes flicking to Alec’s prone form on every turn. The room wasn’t all that large so he was in constant motion from one side to the other, his gut, churning.

This wasn’t how Alec was supposed to find out. 

So much for Magnus’ plan of sneaking a shower before Alec woke up. The guy could hear a fart in a storm from a thousand miles away.

_ Why didn’t I just portal to my place before he woke up?  _ Magnus asked himself for the hundredth time since he had scooped Alec up off of the bathroom floor and healed the gash on the back of his head.

The churning in Magnus’ gut turned into a full-on cyclone when Alec’s eyeballs started rolling beneath his lids. He guessed he would have to say goodbye to looking into those pretty eyes when Alec woke up and kicked him out. Which would be any moment now.

Alec rose to consciousness slowly, trying to shake off the dream he’d had about Magnus having hundreds of arms sticking out of his back. When he blinked his eyes open, they landed on Magnus right away. 

_ There, see, you were seeing things,  _ Alec thought, his eyes raking over Magnus' naked torso. It was a shame Magnus’ lower half was covered by a towel. But the rest of him, or at least, Magnus’ back, was just as smooth as it had been last night.

“Alexander, how do you feel?” Magnus asked cautiously, trying for innocuous by staying on the other side of the room.

“Uh, good?” Alec asked, pulling himself into an upright position. It didn’t occur to him that he should be in the shower and not his bed. “I had a crazy dream that I walked into the bathroom and you were washing all these… things in my shower,” he said. Arms didn’t quite seem right now that he thought about it.

“Things?” Magnus asked, quirking one eyebrow up.

“Yeah, you know…?” Alec waved his arms around, wondering why Magnus wasn’t telling him he was crazy. Or that it was just a dream.

“Tentacles?” Magnus asked. 

Magnus had pretty much fallen in love with Alec on fist sight. And it wasn't that he was lying to his boyfriend, he was just enjoying it while it lasted. He did plan on telling Alec about himself. Eventually. 

“Yeah… tentacles…” Alec trailed off. Why was Magnus looking at him like that? Like Magnus was about to rip his world and everything he knew about it to shreds?

“It wasn’t a dream,” Magnus said, expelling the words with his breath.

“Huh?” It was all Alec could manage.

“What you saw, it wasn’t a dream,” Magnus said, shoving all of Alec’s clothes off of the chair to pull it up to the side of the bed.

Alec watched Magnus settle in the chair, a grin playing at the corner of his lips. The grin disappeared fast when he realized Magnus wasn’t joking.

“Do you know what a warlock is, Alexander?” Magnus asked, resting his elbows on his knees. It was going to be a long day.

“Like a wizard?” Alec asked.

“A warlock is vastly superior to a wizard,” Magnus sniffed, eyeing his boyfriend. “Let me guess, you were sorted into your house and you’re a proud Griffindor?” he asked.

Alec didn’t like the sardonic tone of Magnus’ voice one bit. Was Magnus mocking him? “I’m a Ravenclaw,” he muttered under his breath.  _ Smart and brave! _

“You did get sorted into a house?” Magnus asked incredulously.

“No,” Alec snorted, shuffling a little closer to Magnus. “Jace’s boyfriend put all my info into a quiz and said I was a Ravenclaw.”

“I thought Jace had a girlfriend. The redhead?” Magnus asked, completely sidetracked.

“He does. Jace… Clary… Simon… it’s complicated. They love each other. I tend not to judge,” Alec shrugged. If his brother wanted to live as a threesome with his boyfriend and girlfriend, it was none of his business.

Now it was Magnus’ turn to snort.

“Okay, I do tend to judge. But as long as he’s happy, I’ll leave him to it,” Alec said, conceding Magnus’ snort. “It works,” was all he had to say on the matter.

“Well, I’m a warlock. I’m half-human, half-demon. My father is a demon,” Magnus said with a heavy sigh. He didn’t look away when Alec started laughing. The laughter dried up fast. 

“Did you bang your head too?” Alec asked, squinting at Magnus. He couldn’t see any cuts. In fact, he couldn’t feel any bumps on his own head. No gash, no pain.  _ Odd.  _

“The world you think you know and the one that actually exists are two very different things, Alexander,” Magnus said, waving his hand to cut off Alec’s reply. “There’s magic in this world. Oh, and vampires, fairies, and werewolves are real too,” he said, thinking it best to get it all out in one go.

Alec was starting to worry about his boyfriend’s sanity. Magnus looked like he was deadly serious. He almost shit his non-existent pants when Magnus snapped his fingers and the bedsheets that he was sitting on, the green, cum-stained bedsheets from the night before, transformed into black satin sheets.

Alec had been in the process of standing up to go check Magnus’ temperature. Instead, he fell on his ass and gaped at the soft black satin that surrounded him.

Magnus took the slow shake of Alec’s head, and his flopping jaw, for the denial it was. With a series of snaps and hand gestures, Alec was clean, dressed, hair combed, teeth brushed, and sat crosslegged with a tray of bacon and eggs in his lap before Alec could finish denying the existence of magic.

“Magic is real,” Alec said, rather redundantly, as he poked at the tray of hot food in his lap. And the cup of coffee. “I think I need something stronger,” he muttered, blinking when Magnus waved his hand. The scent of whiskey rising from his cup had him taking a cautious sip. It was now an Irish coffee.

“Yes, magic is real. I get my magic from my father, he is a demon,” Magnus said, leaving out the part where his father was a demon prince. Alec didn’t need to know that, just now.

“And your Mom?” Alec asked. He didn’t know that much about Magnus’ family yet.

“My Mom didn’t appreciate spawning a demon,” Magnus said, refusing to say anything else on the matter for now. They weren’t there yet, and depending on how the rest of the conversation went, they might never get there and Alec would just be one of the many who couldn’t handle him being the way he was.

If Alec chose to stick around, Magnus would tell him all about his parents. 

“So the uh… the… they’re from your dad’s side?” Alec asked, gesturing vaguely to Magnus’ back. “How many of those things are there?” he asked. It seemed to be the wrong question when he saw Magnus stiffen. Not that Magnus could get any stiffer. His boyfriend had practically shut down, talking in a monotone.

That’s when Alec realized what he had said. ‘Things’, wasn’t a very nice way to describe them. He would probably get defensive if someone had addressed a part of his body as a ‘thing’. 

“Magnus, I’m sorry. It’s just a lot to take in,” Alec said, putting the tray aside to shuffle closer to Magnus. “It’s a lot. I didn’t mean anything by it,” he said, taking Magnus’ hand.

“I know,” Magnus said, his shoulders dropping. And his head. He barely had the strength to hold it up. Before a thought occurred to him. “Why aren’t you running out of here screaming?” he asked, looking down when Alec squeezed his hand.

“You just told me magic exists. And summoned me this massive breakfast. And saved me from having to kick Jace’s ass for shower rights,” Alec chuckled, thankful that inflection had returned to Magnus’ tone of voice.

“The tentacles? How many do you have?” Alec asked, threading his fingers through Magnus’.

“Two,” Magnus said. He raised an eyebrow when Alec’s face screwed up in confusion.

Alec was positive that he had seen at least a thousand… tentacles and said as much.

Magnus had to laugh. A thousand indeed. “Your brain couldn’t process the information, blowing it all out of proportion. I have two tentacles, Alexander,” he said.

“Can I see them?” Alec asked.

Magnus tried to decypher Alec’s expression. It seemed that the shock had worn off. All he saw now was curiosity. Not the, ‘let’s grab our pitchforks and poke the sideshow with them’, type of curiosity. But genuine wonder. 

Against his better judgment, Magnus stood up and turned around. It was now or never.

Alec watched Magnus turn, silently telling his dick to quit when his eyes raked over the golden, muscular back that was presented to him. What he had taken to be two dimples, at the base of Magnus’ spine, were actually two small scars. A tentacle, inky black with small white suckers on the underside, snaked out from each scar.

Magnus held his breath, waiting for Alec to club him around the head and drag him off to the government for experimentation. What he didn’t expect, was the gentle touch of fingers on his tentacles. The soft sensation sent a shiver skittering up each six ‘ft long tentacle. 

Alec stroked one of Magnus’ tentacles from base to tip, inspecting the appendage. It looked like an octopus tentacle, the skin as soft and smooth as the rest of Magnus’ skin. It also shook at his touch.

It was then that Alec realized what it must have taken for Magnus to show him this. The trust alone almost put him on his ass. He didn’t know if he would be that brave if their positions were reversed. 

Magnus lost all of the control he had over his tentacles when Alec touched them. They surged back, making him cringe when he felt Alec’s skin beneath the tips of them. Until Alec laughed.

Alec couldn’t help it. The tentacles practically snuffled his hair and face. It was like walking into a room and being greeted by two over-enthusiastic puppies. One snaked beneath the collar of his plain black t-shirt, the other explored his hair, neck, and ear. 

The laughter died in Alec’s throat when the one in his shirt flicked over his nipple in its search of his body, tickling through his chest hair up until that point. Now he was thinking of all the things Magnus might be able to do with those extra limbs.

Alec stepped forward when the tentacle emerged and swept down his arm to inspect the rest of him. He wrapped his arms around Magnus’ waist and plastered himself to Magnus’ back. “Is this why you didn’t want us to share a shower last night?” he asked, propping his chin on Magnus’ shoulder.

“They emerge whenever water touches my body. I was washing them when you burst in,” Magnus said, waiting for the other shoe to drop. 

“What about rain?” Alec asked.

“I use very subtle magic to glamour my body,” Magnus said. “It’s like camouflage,” he said when Alec just looked at him, mystified.

“Cool,” Alec said, wondering what else Magnus could do with magic. As odd as that thought was. 

“Why aren’t you screaming at the top of your lungs?” Magnus asked, craning his head to look into Alec’s eyes.

“I like them,” Alec shrugged, eyes widening and hips jerking when one tentacle slithered over his ass and between his legs to rub over his cock. “And I think they probably come in handy,” he muttered a little breathlessly, not bothering to bat the tentacle away from his dick. Who was he to deny it’s exploration?

Magnus was about to respond when someone did scream at the top of their lungs. He thought that Clary had burst into the room and seen his tentacles groping Alec for one wild, scary moment. Until they spun around. The loud girly scream came again, a shriek that grated on his nerves and set his tentacles quivering. The scream hadn’t come from the doorway.

Alec took off to investigate the noise, Magnus hot on his heels. A small shiver ran through him when Magnus’ hands lit up with magic, Magnus dressing with a snap of his fingers and putting his tentacles away. He stored away how hot magic was to inspect later.

Alec crashed into the bathroom when he determined that that was where the girly shrieks were coming from. He almost let out his own shriek when he saw Jace, Simon, and Clary, all butt naked, all trying to get out from underneath the freezing cold water. It was a visual he didn’t need. And Simon was the one that was screaming.

Magnus quickly killed his magic, erupting with laughter when he saw the naked trio slipping and sliding on the still soapy shower floor. None of them had thought to turn the cold water off. He made a mental note to buy Alec a bath mat when Alec bundled him out of the bathroom.

“How about we head over to my place? I’ll tell you all about myself there,” Magnus asked, still grinning at the image of the naked trio- as he would always think of them from this point forward- trying to get away from the freezing water. Alec looked like he had been scarred for life.

“Sure, let me grab my car keys,” Alec said, more than a little curious about Magnus’ place. They had only spent time at his apartment so far.

“No need,” Magnus said, waving his arm to create a portal in the safety of Alec’s bedroom. At least now he didn’t have to go through the white-knuckle ride that was Alec’s driving.

“What’s that?” Alec asked, staring at the golden swirling vortex.

“Oh, Alexander, there is a lot for you to learn,” Magnus chuckled, snaking his arm around Alec’s waist and pressing a kiss to his lovely cheek before leading his boyfriend, and probably future husband, through the portal.

**Author's Note:**

> fUtURe HusBAndS!


End file.
